Educators have a critical stake in supporting the development of interest--as the presence of interest benefits sustained engagement and learning. Neuroscientific research has shown that interest is distinct from, but overlapping with, self-related information processing, the personally relevant connections that a learner makes to content (e.g.,…

A between-group, repeated-measures study compared sections of a career counseling course. One course used a flipped classroom design, while the other used a lecture. The flipped classroom yielded higher ratings of career counseling self-efficacy and active engagement among students. There were no differences in helping skills self-efficacy between…

Although author and teacher Penny Kittle has shifted from working with high school students to college freshman, she notes in this piece that they are not that different. They still show up the first day of class as "nonbelievers" needing to be "nudged" toward the love for books that she forges through her sensitive context…

Years of failed attempts to engage my mathematics teacher students in exploration and co-creation led me to radically change my teaching approach. Inspired by literature that uses the jazz improv metaphor for teaching, I derived three tenets based on principles from jazz improv. First, I would bring no more than a single problem-solving task to…

Performance on lab assessments of executive functions predicts academic achievement and other positive life outcomes. A primary goal of research on executive functions has been to design interventions that improve outcomes like academic achievement by improving executive functions. These interventions typically involve extensive practice on…

The practice of "memes" -- taking an image from pop culture and adding humorous or inspiring text to it -- are an opportunity for marketing practice. We posit that memes also provide an innovative technique to help students become more engaged in marketing classes. We propose requiring students to submit one or more graded homework…

Research demonstrates that school connectedness protects students from risky behaviors and improves healthy development and academic achievement. Despite its importance, there has been little focus on how to promote school connectedness through school-based interventions. One problem with this area of practical application is that school…

This resource review focuses on the use of the DISCflex instrument in the classroom. While frequently administered in industry, DISC-style instruments are less frequently used in academic contexts, despite a usefulness in clarifying and working with preferred behaviors. This review provides a brief history and description of the DISCflex…

Distinct in its scope and research design, the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) sheds light on promising practices for fostering the knowledge, skills, and attitudes college students need to navigate a pluralistic society. Importantly, the study culminated at a unique time characterized by a global…

How much should student effort matter in their course grades? How much does student effort actually matter? What is the link between student effort and student performance, especially when the effort is not specifically focused on a specific performance metric? This paper examines these questions normatively as well as by analyzing student data…

Faculty and students alike can benefit from the use of educational technology, yet keeping up with the latest developments can pose a challenge for busy faculty. This article reviews one tool that could be used to facilitate teaching and learning in face-to-face, hybrid, or online courses. Acadly is an online platform and mobile application…

The relationship between sexuality education and religion is often framed antagonistically, especially when it comes to tensions between the teaching of sexuality education and the priorities of some religious communities. In this paper, we argue that this antagonism can be structured as much by the prevalent forms of engagement that display it…

Research shows that utilizing Google Chat aids in positive student experiences (Saadatmand et al., European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning 20:61-79, 2017), promotes learner interaction (Kobayashi, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education 16:28-39, 2015), and has a higher level of satisfaction over traditional communication tools such…

Effective teaching requires the use of techniques and strategies to counter student passivity and enhance engagement. Research demonstrates that drawing improves memory retention, increases motivation to learn, provides an opportunity to learn what makes an image an effective communication tool, allows demonstration of conceptual understanding,…

In this manuscript, we describe a coding club we created and implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. We were purposeful in creating the club to: (a) focus on design and problem solving as the basis for learning computer coding and (b) include elements to improve the engagement of girls. We ran multiple iterations of a Girls Design with Code Club…